Generally there exists a variety of different stacked assemblies and structures in the context of electronics and electronic products.
The motivation behind the integration of electronics and related products may be as diverse as the related use contexts. Relatively often size savings, weight savings, cost savings, or just efficient integration of components is sought for when the resulting solution ultimately exhibits a multilayer nature. In turn, the associated use scenarios may relate to product packages or food casings, visual design of device housings, wearable electronics, personal electronic devices, displays, detectors or sensors, automotive industry, car/vehicle exteriors (e.g. door handles, trims, bumpers, mirrors, etc.), vehicle such as car interiors, antennae, labels, (in-)vehicle electronics, control panels, dashboards, trims, seats, etc.
Electronics such as electronic components, ICs (integrated circuit), and conductors, may be generally provided onto a substrate element by a plurality of different techniques. For example, ready-made electronics such as various surface mount devices (SMD) may be mounted on a substrate surface that ultimately forms an inner or outer interface layer of a multilayer structure. Additionally, technologies falling under the term “printed electronics” may be applied to actually produce electronics directly and additively to the associated substrate. The term “printed” refers in this context to various printing techniques capable of producing electronics/electrical elements from the printed matter, including but not limited to screen printing, flexography, and inkjet printing, through a substantially additive printing process. The used substrates may be flexible and printed materials organic, which is however, not necessarily always the case.
When a multilayer structure is loaded with various electronics, related power, data and/or control connections may have to be provided thereto, which typically requires provision of electrical connectors and related wiring even though also wireless connections may be occasionally applicable. Further, mechanical fixing of multilayer solutions to host surfaces may occasionally be troublesome.
In applications, where a number of elements such as electronic components and related layers are to be integrated together in a three-dimensional (3D) structure, the required additional 3D type assembly of electronics may turn out time-consuming and technically difficult.
Yet, in connection with multiple radiation-emitting such as light-emitting components included in the same structure, various problems arising from mutual disturbances between them may easily arise. For instance, so-called light leakage or crosstalk phenomena are common issues with solutions involving a greater number of light sources in the same assembly, among other potential challenges. Generally, one could say that controllability of light remains a challenge. Desired and actually achieved optical paths of light propagating within a structure, and related target and realized distributions, may in practical circumstances differ considerably from each other. For example, light emitted from a light source may initially be too collimated or spread, whereupon the related light transmitting or directing structure should contain features for correcting the situation. Many contemporary light control features further tend to increase local material thickness of a concerned structure even quite considerably, which may be problematic in scenarios where the local thickness should remain moderate.